Velominati Super Prestige: Mens World Road Race Championships 2015

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• VSP PICKS:

  1. Sagan
  2. Kristoff
  3. Matthews
  4. Degenkolb
  5. Terpstra

• @Roger

  All this whining about road conditions? The roads at the spring classics are no better if not worse. These are the pros, Rule #5. It is a hard course, as it should be. People need to stop bitching about the roads and harden the fuck up. If the pros want to bitch about it they need to harden up as well. This is pro racing deal with it. I ride these roads all the time and they are not bad.

  Yeah, you tell 'em. HTFU people. The U23 race finish was pretty great. Nothing like an Italian who refuses to work in a break. I'm glad the French foiled their chances on this race. If it's wet you better be at the front before that sharp left before any of the climbs.

• Well I made it.

  Totally stressed out by heavy traffic turning a one hour journey into nearly two hours, meaning I arrived with barely time to sign on, pin on and get on.

  Bad start by missing my clip - I've recently switched to the new Powertap pedals and they have a Look-style cleat but it's just slightly different. Hit the first corner right at the back and had to work my way up.

  The hip came through OK. Bit painful on the big efforts - it's a 2.5km circuit with a couple of sharp turns, one coming up a climb, so pretty much every lap you have to do at least two power sprints. Feeling a bit stiff and sore now though, but not too bad.

  Did nothing much during the race. Stayed in the bunch, followed wheels, made up gaps. It was just about getting it out of the way more than trying to do anything and making sure I still had the nerve to race in a pack. Another time I would have thought it was a waste of time to turn up and do so little but not today !

• @ChrisO

  The hip came through OK. Bit painful on the big efforts – it’s a 2.5km circuit with a couple of sharp turns, one coming up a climb, so pretty much every lap you have to do at least two power sprints. Feeling a bit stiff and sore now though, but not too bad.

  Glad to hear you're back racing. Some of my favourite pieces on the site were your escapades in the desert. I was wondering about the side effects of the injury. From the X-rays you posted, it looked to be a reasonably clean break, and given that I was under the impression that such breaks usually heal pretty thoroughly, it must be something else causing the pain? Joint problems? Or side effect of having the leg cut open in order to install the hardware?

• VSP PICKS:

  1. Kristoff
  2. Griepel
  3. Matthews
  4. van Avermaet
  5. Valverde

• Delgado narrowly avoided.

  VSP PICKS:

  1. Sagan
  2. Kristoff
  3. Degenkolb
  4. Van Avermaet
  5. Gilbert

• @LeoTea

  @ChrisO

  The hip came through OK. Bit painful on the big efforts – it’s a 2.5km circuit with a couple of sharp turns, one coming up a climb, so pretty much every lap you have to do at least two power sprints. Feeling a bit stiff and sore now though, but not too bad.

  Glad to hear you’re back racing. Some of my favourite pieces on the site were your escapades in the desert. I was wondering about the side effects of the injury. From the X-rays you posted, it looked to be a reasonably clean break, and given that I was under the impression that such breaks usually heal pretty thoroughly, it must be something else causing the pain? Joint problems? Or side effect of having the leg cut open in order to install the hardware?

  Thanks.

  Yes the break was clean and it has healed well. The current pain is being caused by the hardware itself inflaming the soft tissue and normally the metal plate has to be in for at least 12-18 months.

  It got quite bad a few months ago and the doctors said there were three options.

  1) Take it out early, but they didn't want to do that.

  2) Stop riding, but I didn't want to do that.

  3) Suck it up.

  So we're just managing the pain. I have daily exercises to stretch and strengthen, and am using a foam roller to keep things loose. It seems to keep it under control, if not back to normal.

• VSP PICKS:

  1. sagan
  2. alaphilippe
  3. degenkolb
  4. boonen
  5. matthews

• VSP PICKS:

  1. john Degenkolb
  2. peter Sagan
  3. philippe Gilbert
  4. michael Matthews
  5. greg Van Avermaet

• VSP PICKS:

  1. A. Kristoff
  2. G. Van Avermaet
  3. P. Sagan
  4. Z. Stybar
  5. J. Degenkolb